Generating Leads: An Important Aspect of Your Business

Whether you're a startup, an established business, or you're thinking about doing your own business; you'll need to be flexible during your outreach campaign. Maintaining your current customer base while seeking our newer ones can be a time-consuming and stressful process.

Generating leads is an ongoing activity. Without leads, your business is unable to make conversions or product sales. We’ll guide you throughout the lead generation process and give you tips on how to improve your marketing efforts.

Taking the cold outreach approach, you can contact potential customers and make an impact on their lives. The cold outreach approach will ensure that you're making a lasting impression on the customers and businesses you come in contact with.

Why Should You Use Cold Outreach?

You should use the cold outreach system because it’s a great way to get people interested in your business. Here are some reasons why it’s been successful for marketing campaigns:

Low Investment

With the cold email outreach technique, you’re spending less time and money to contact your leads. Using methods such as newspaper and video advertising becomes very expensive in the long run. Through email outreach, you can save money on finding the right leads for your brand.

All you need is an email account and a mailing list to get started. The only investment you’d have to focus on is reliable email marketing software that helps automate your mailing campaigns.

Improve Brand Awareness

Every email you send to your customer brings you closer to a conversion. Through cold outreach emails, your audience will be aware of the products you're trying to sell. With the right policy, targeted email, and perfect design, the business value increases.

This helps when your customer wants a better service or product because your business has a better way to turn their customers into conversions.

Approaching Your Audience

Your audience can be targeted based on their age, location, job profile, and other specifications. Previously, you would approach your audience through a newspaper advertisement or paying to place it on a billboard.

But what's the issue with the old school method? The audience can easily flip past the newspaper advertisement. Billboard advertisements work, but people can drive through and ignore them on the highway.

The Cold Outreach mailing strategy allows you to send products to a targeted audience. This gives you the ability to modify the message and send it to people who will engage with your product. Your audience receiving your email is more likely to convert because the advertisement was made especially for them. As a result, this will increase the rate of conversions and future sales.

Predictable Results

After doing your first cold outreach campaign, you’ll start to notice predictable results. Cold emailing outreach is a reliable source of leads and is great for getting more people interested in your product.

How to Generate Leads?

Here is a step-by-step process on how to generate leads via the cold outreach method;

Step 1: Start Prospecting!

During the prospecting stage, you need to choose the right potential customers for your campaign. While it is an easy process, it's the most crucial step during the cold outreach.

Step 2: Seek Out Prospects That’s Relevant to Your Business

Prospecting requires you to reach out to reliable, experienced, and qualified people who would be interested in working with you and your company. If done incorrectly, you'll be wasting hours targeting an audience that's not interested in what you have to offer.

Step 3: Research and Refine Your Prospecting List

When creating a prospecting list, you’ll want to be as inclusive and extensive as possible. This will ensure that the people you do contact are engaged with your business. Prospecting in cold outreach means you’re contacting people who have no idea your company exists.

Once you’ve made a good prospecting list, you can ensure that such businesses and companies can be informed about your business and the services you provide.

Using Google Search for Prospecting

We’ll show you how to create a prospecting list through Google Search and a browser extension. Through the Google search, you’ll look for a database of people who are accessible. Use a browser extension such as Hunter.io to get the contact information from the online databases you find.

Many of us take pride in finding information on the internet. But how many people can find the relevant information? To do so, use thumbtacks and other commercial aggregator sites to find companies within your industry.

Go to Google Search and type in "Industry Name" + Directory. For more specific results, you can type "The best (Industry Name) + In (Location)”. That way, you can see what industries in your proximity are performing the best. After typing that search query, you'll be sent to an aggregator website.

Aggregator websites like thumbtack and clutch help the B2B process. They allow you to filter your audience by location and industry. For instance, if you're a business specializing in writing car descriptions, the automotive industry would be your target audience.

Is your business trying to get into the software industry? Try using G2! G2 is a review site that aggregates user reviews to increase leads in businesses that are in the software industry. Prospecting depends on your company's niche and who you'll provide services to.

You can use a localized database to receive the information. The best way to do so is through a website aggregator. You can use a virtual assistant or website scraper to obtain company information.

Alternatively, you can temporarily hire someone to do data entry for you. Here’s how to create and utilize the prospecting process.

Go to an aggregator website and create a list out of your target companies.
Create a spreadsheet and list the companies that you’re willing to do business with. List all of the contact information your virtual assistant scraped out on the spreadsheet.
After getting the basic information about the company, you need to take it further. You have to carefully research and find the right point of contact and mark that information on your spreadsheet.
Find the contact information of the company. You can find the details on the company's website. Make sure you write all of the information down in a spreadsheet.

Remember, when prospecting, you'll want to contact people and not the company. Try to find information about the right point of contact, and don't be afraid to do extra research.

Hunter.io is good at getting the Email ID, but there’s more contact information to be found. Look for their social media handles like LinkedIn, Instagram, and blog pages. By listing everything, you’ll create better prospecting relationships with companies on your list.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Are you trying to connect with people based on their professional background? Why waste time using Google Search when there is a platform made for that purpose? That’s where LinkedIn Sales Navigator kicks in. If used properly, it will help you find the right leads for your company.

LinkedIn has an extensive database of people in the industry and the professional crowd. As a result, cold outreach on LinkedIn is simple. You can use search filters such as location, company employee strength, and other data.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator and Growbots have a similar process. However, LinkedIn gives you better network visibility and access to their algorithm. These features make the job prospecting process more effective and faster.

In regards to filters, LinkedIn Sales Navigator has a lot to choose from. Generating leads on LinkedIn makes cold outreach prospecting less of a hassle. You can target leads based on previous account activity, keywords, and geographic location.

The filters are useful in cutting your prospecting time in half. After clicking the search tab, LinkedIn Sales Navigator will give you a list of people based on the parameters you’ve set.

Afterward, make sure you keep all of the important contact information in a spreadsheet. Use Hunter.io to find the correct Email ID. Like the Growbots method, you can look through all of the social media handles and write down point of contact information on a spreadsheet.

Prospecting to generate leads is essential to your marketing campaign. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the small details, but it is worth it. When starting the campaign, note that people want to have a personalized touch when receiving email.

If you use mass email and other spam-like marketing techniques, your marketing campaign might not work correctly. In fact, this could put you at risk of losing value in your company. To have a successful cold outreach campaign, take time to give a personalized touch in every email you send.

When using the spreadsheet, add an additional column to take note of things you can interact with your prospective companies. For example, take notice of their Instagram bio. This will help you create long-lasting connections by getting the company engaged.

For more organization, you can add an extra column to show the point of contact's status—this aids in telling your sales reps what stage they are in the cold outreach process. Through the help of LinkedIn Sales Navigator and Hunter.io, you'll have a cost-effective way to gather and manage leads!

BuiltWith

BuiltWith is more expensive than the other two options, but their tools make prospecting a breeze. What does Builtwith do? It analyzes an entire website from a technological perspective. You can place any website on Builtwith, and you'll find the hidden dynamics of how the page works.

For instance, Builtwith helps you easily decide if a website is made in WordPress. Also, it uses Google Analytics to discover the site's performance. BuiltWith's main advantage is when you make specific intros in your cold outreach email campaign.

BuiltWith is a great website tool that gives you multiple solutions within the prospective database. It will also determine which businesses are qualified for your prospecting list. BuiltWith will help you determine if the product market is the right fit for you.

The BuiltWith platform has many tools such as speed, keywords, and industry verticals. Use these tools to get information on your competitor's behavior.

For example, let's say you're running an SEO firm. BuiltWith can tell you if the site uses Demandware for hosting. Demandware is an e-commerce platform that has cloud-based solutions. The majority of companies that use Demandware have large budgets, so it can help you find those companies and place them in your own prospecting list. Then you can make multiple solutions via the Demandware platform.

Also, you can use Sumo, which is another expensive email marketing tool. However, the software is so powerful that it will collect all social media information and contact information on a website.

BuiltWith is essential in creating a prospecting list. While the free version limits you to only 50 websites, it is great for SEO marketers on a tight budget. In fact, you can export the website results via computer if the free trial period runs out.

GrowBots

Growbots provides the simplest way to start your email lead generation process. It gathers data from Builtwith and LinkedIn Sales Navigator to make the best prospecting list. While Growbots may appear cheaper because it uses both tools, it’s still an expensive investment option because the costs increase the more contacts you add to your prospecting list.

Aside from the costs, using Growbots will make you feel lazy. This is the biggest issue when using platforms such as Growbots. However, it is highly customizable as it has filters to help you find your target prospects. Growbots help SEO marketers create a list that will work when making the cold outreach approach. This prospecting method is in the middle of the pitchbox and gives the personalization we're looking for.

Growbots uses outreach and email tools to keep your cold outreach methods in one place. It allows you to search for contacts and follow up with them. Growbots is a powerful tool that will give you the best prospecting techniques in comparison to other prospecting tools.

Why Is Lead Generation So Important?

Leads are a crucial component behind any sales team. With the right amount of leads, you can construct a plan to convert them and provide services. This helps increase profits while aiding their benefit model. Here are some reasons why you should use lead generation for your business.

Increase Revenue

When done right, lead generation will maximize your company’s ability to find target prospects. To do so, you’ll have to use the right cold outreach techniques, content, and offers to receive engagement from your target groups.

Through lead generation, you'll find it easier to gain qualified leads, which will make it easier for your sales team to convert them. The revenue potential is great if you focus on the pain points and interests your prospects care about.

Business Opportunities

Lead generation is a great way to add new business opportunities for your brand. Maybe a brand that’s a non-competitor wants to meet up for a Zoom video webinar. Teaming up with the brand will give you access to their audience while growing yours at the same time. Through partnerships and collaboration, you’ll increase more leads and future business projects down the line.

Customer Reviews

Social proof is a key aspect in making your prospects convert. There’s no better review than one from a previous client. Even if your service or product is excellent, you won’t always get the review automatically. It’s up to you to speak to your previous customers and ask for reviews and testimonials.

Testimonials are a great way to increase user retention as well. By doing this, you’ll have accurate customer information about your business. In addition, this helps your marketing collateral such as infographics, social media posts, emails, videos, and websites.

Better Lead Quality

Without lead generation, you’re not taking the time to assess which leads are actually valuable for your brand. Creating content and getting traffic is a good thing. But if your website visitors aren’t converting to leads, then you’re wasting time and resources.

Through lead generation, you’re creating content to help reach your target audience. Everything you create for your brand - from your social media posts to the website and promotional videos - need to cater to the prospects you’re trying to reach.

This makes it easier to make topics that are relevant to your audience. By doing the lead generation process properly, you'll increase engagement, sales, and conversions.

Lead Automation

Previously, managing leads required manual effort, which could be time-consuming. Now, there are software tools that aid in automating the management and lead generation process. This includes customer data platforms—CRMs, and email marketing software. By placing them in your lead generation campaign, you can hasten and simplify your lead pipeline.

For instance, customer data platforms collect information about your leads. Then your leads are sent to a campaign that’s carried out by the email marketing tool. Then, the CRM tracks all of the communications between your business and the leads.

You can sync initiatives and data by making these tools available for your sales, customer support, and marketing teams. This gives you more insights into how your leads are engaging with you. An analytical view of your audience and their behaviors is essential to improving your sales and marketing campaigns.

How to Clean Out Your Prospecting List

So you've created your first prospecting list. However, it still needs to be concise, so you're contacting the right people. If someone on your team is hired to do data entry, then you'll have to do this step yourself. While creating a prospecting list is easy, you have to understand your business in order to make it the most accurate.

What if you don’t have time to clean the prospecting list? You can train the teammate whose sole job is to do it. We suggest having them create the prospecting list and clean it with the help of your inputs. Doing so will save you both time and money.

When doing cold outreach to generate leads, you’ll need to find the people that will benefit the most from connecting with your business. In addition, you have to provide value to your prospects so they can remain engaged and happy to work with you. This is important for coming through with people in your prospecting list and creating a great lead generation process.

Once you start your cold outreach campaign, you’ll need to take references from your cleaned prospecting list. Make sure your campaign list is relevant and has the details needed to enhance your email outreach conversations.

Cleaning the Prospecting List

Are you ready to clean out your prospecting list? Here are some ways to find the best prospects within the list.

Browse through the social media pages of the leads in your prospecting list. View their discussion points, their niche, and online interactions. This will aid you in making a great email opener, which aids in adding value to the conversation. Find topics your prospects are passionate about so you can gain their attention.
Look at the blog posts they’re creating for their company. Through proper analysis, you can find out their company role. You can provide solutions and show them your services that can help their current project. For instance, you can give them information and insights that will aid their lead generation strategies or their SEO.
Use Builtwith to help create your prospecting list. With Builtwith, you can view the technological aspects of a website. Then you can give them tips to help enhance their website. This gesture will be more genuine and have potential customers value your opinion. In fact, it gives them a customizable model that shows them how to benefit and scale their business.
Create a notes column to keep track of everything you find. This ensures that you don’t have to view their social media pages. Small things like these will help immensely when you take time to create a value proposition to win the prospects over.
Look at the LinkedIn profile of people who have professional qualifications. While adding a personal touch to your email is essential, you should look into the professional side of things.

It's normal to appreciate and be attracted to flattery. If you make a point to congratulate your colleagues on their personal and professional achievements, you'll appear likable.

Depending on your service and what you’re going to sell to your prospects, make notes of the relevant information and add references from your business. You can gauge what your audience is interested in. All you have to do is research their social media accounts.

Social Media cold outreach is optional because it can be difficult for people with full schedules. But if you’re trying to convert your prospects into quality leads, this step will help you improve the process. Also, you can hire an intern to assist you so you can work on keeping your business active.

After tagging and cleaning the prospecting list, you’ll have a list filled with high-quality leads. This list has personality information on each prospect that will help you make a good deal and increase sales conversions.

It's easier to speak to prospects by approaching them through social media. By getting assistance from the notes you've made on your prospects, breaking the ice will be less difficult. Come with a few topics, so you can keep them engaged with a few topics and sudden starters.

Why is this step optional?

Because social media cold outreach requires a lot of patience and effort on your end, if you're a business owner, you're already handling a million tasks. And, speaking to your prospects via social media is an extensive process.

If you’re trying to boost your current lead generation techniques, then try networking through social media. That way, you’re keeping the business or company updated about your online services, and they can contact you if they need help in their niche.

Connecting with prospects via social media is a tricky and difficult process. If you don’t know the intricacies behind internet dialogue, hire a virtual assistant to ease the workload of this task.

Here's how you can get your social media account noticed and have it as a great lead generation source!

Start by being interactive. In social media, interacting with your prospects is a surefire way to convert leads. Make you give a like, share, or comment for each post your prospect posts. Start engaging with them and subtly link it to your website. Food instance, if someone posts about SEO statistics, give them a comment on the call-to-action (CTA). This will supplement your post and add extra value to it!
Don't slide into your prospect's DMs. Social media dialogue is different from email. Direct messaging your prospects can come off as annoying, intrusive, and in most cases, a waste of time. If you don't break the ice before sending a DM, you run the risk of not making a good first impression.
Share posts! When you notice high-quality content, you can share it and tag them. This will increase your engagement from the prospects and make your account noticeable. As a result, your prospects will warm up to you faster.
Stay consistent! Using social media to generate leads is an ongoing process. If you want to have a strong relationship, stay consistent with your comments, shares, and likes. Spread out this engagement through all of your social media platforms, and not just Facebook.
We suggest interacting with the prospects for 4-6 weeks before reaching out with a good cold outreach email.
Keep your messages quick and personal. Don’t exceed professional boundaries when making a cold outreach strategy. Your messages need to be to the point, friendly, and concise.
Have a busy schedule? Then start scheduling your posts! Take at least 30 minutes out of your day to plan social media posts a week in advance. That way, you can continue to be engaged with your prospects.
Always update your social media profiles. Use social media’s direct connection as leverage. Every day you should be posting fresh new content relating to your niche. When people view your page, they’ll feel that you’re a realistic and genuine brand and will connect with you.
You’ll need a social media manager or someone who can make notes about the site advancements. You can go to another social media account and quickly engage and create conversation. By following the tips above, there’s a high chance you’ll receive a positive response!

Remember, social media is a different world than emailing. You need to be fast, present, and quick to engage with your prospects. By doing so, you’ll improve your brand’s reputation while also getting leads from platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.

Utilizing the Cold Outreach Strategy

This is the stage where you’ll write cold outreach emails to your prospects. If you’ve followed the previous steps correctly, your outreach database is ready after months of filtering and research. Now, you just have to create a perfect message. Directly talking to your prospects is the essential step in the cold outreach process.

When sending emails, there is no fixed method you need to take. You can even use LinkedIn messaging or any other cold outreach method to get your prospect’s attention.

To reach out to people in your outreach database, writing personal emails is a great way to get them engaged. This is because emails have a higher deliverability rate. Some professionals use outreach software to aid them in their outreach campaigns. But you never know if your emails through the software make it to your target audience's inbox. Your prospects might have spam filters, and the email can be accidentally placed inside their spam folder.

Tips on Writing Outreach Email Copy

When writing outreach email copy, you have to know how to communicate with your prospects correctly. Here are some tips that will help you along the way.

Customize and add a personal touch to your emails. Your email will catch your prospect’s attention and make its intended impact.
Don't call people 'sir' or 'ma'am" because it puts off your recipient. It will appear as if you don't know their name, which is shown on their email ID. Call them by their first name or don't send the email. This is a time-consuming method, but your methods won't come off as a "mass outreach email." This is a good thing because you give your prospects an authentic version of your company.
There are two methods that you can use when reaching your database. You can either create a short 1-minute video or create an email that has personal anecdotes. If you're not camera-shy, creating a short video is a better way to reach out to your prospects. People like video messaging because it adds a personal touch during the cold outreach process.
People like to know who is behind your organization, and if you make a video and send it through, it will show the prospect how much you value them. People on the receiving end will appreciate the effort you’ve taken to create a high-quality proposition.
Lead generation strategies are important to help your business grow. When you’re doing cold outreach, it’s more than just your company. You want to let your prospects know that you’re here to help them. Create an email in a way that focuses on your prospects/recipients and less about your country.
Don't be afraid to use humor sparingly in your emails. Start by deciding the tone of your cold outreach email and stick with it. To lighten the tone of your email, include their references in a humorous way. This can backfire, so you have to make sure your humor is in a way that is positive and not at their expense.
Avoid using email templates. Email templates are very common and have been used in virtually every marketing strategy. They fail to have that personal touch that most users are looking for. Create a framework that gives you space for customization for each prospect within your database.
You and your marketing team have spent hours getting the right information about people in your prospect database. So it needs to reflect in the outreach message that you're sending to them.
Don’t show everything about your services in the first email. Give them some hints, but don’t overdo it. Make sure your prospects stay curious, and this is how you’ll make them convert.

You can try bombarding thousands of people with a simple email template, but you’ll get no results. However, the methods we’ve suggested will receive more results from a few hundred people.

Keep a personal touch, know who you’re targeting, and give them a hint at what your service has to offer.

Follow Up

Make an irresistible offer! The hours you've spent trying to research your prospects should not go to waste. Sending one outreach email is only half the battle. During this stage, you'll want to follow up with them and gauge if they are willing to work with you or not.

Having regular follow-ups that are not creepy will help create a two-way conversation with your prospects. If you're thinking your customers are going to convert with one email, you're wrong.

Strategically following up with your prospects is important because you want to appear persistent and positive. Avoid bombarding your prospects with emails in this stage, as it will leave them annoyed. Your follow-ups have to be designed to help start a conversation with them.

How to Follow Up With Prospects

Receiving repeated emails from the same individual can be annoying, especially if you’re not interested in the first place. To the prospect, they’ll feel as if you’re forcing your way into their inbox. Here’s how you can break the ice and improve your follow-up emails!

After sending the cold outreach mail, wait at least 48 hours before receiving a positive response. If you don’t hear anything from the person, write another email. Again, wait 48 hours until you hear a response. If you don’t hear any response, then send another follow-up email in the same thread.
Once you've completed step 1, you'll realize that your prospects have received over three emails within five days. This is a great frequency because the prospect will notice your email thread within five days. However, if you don't get a response after the 3rd email, it's time to look for other prospects.
If the prospect responds, then you have to create a response email. After you hear from, you've created a communication channel that works on both ends. That's what makes your second email magical. Your goal in the second email is to convert them into wanting your services.
Start creating your second email after they’ve responded. Receiving an immediate response doesn’t happen often, but it’s the best scenario. Make sure to add follow-ups to your cold outreach email campaigns.
After sending a response email, you can follow up with them every 48 hours with a reply email. Do this to receive a response or acknowledgment from their end. While this process might appear time-consuming, you'll experience great results. Follow up until your prospect responds or ignores your message completely.
When hearing their response, your prospects will tell you if they are interested in the company/services you are providing. You have to give them time to think about the offer and get back to you. People who have seen the first email will take time to think about the second email you’re sending.

One saying that's said amongst salesmen, "The Follow-up is where the money comes," is true in the cold outreach email process. Stay consistent and follow up with you because you're investing time and effort in each prospect you're speaking with.

Create an Appointment

The appointment setting is the final consulting stage. The goal of the lead generation process is to get to this stage so you can convert your prospects. When sending emails to prospects, you're showing them a piece of the services you provide.

A consultation meeting or appointment setting helps you create a 1-on-1 conversation with your prospect and make them clients. Even if your cold outreach campaign did not receive as much traffic as expected, it’s a good way to get your word out there. The goal of the cold outreach process is to interact with future clients.

You’ve done the hard work by researching, prospecting, and investing your time and efforts to create personalized emails. And you’ve started to follow up with them regularly to keep them engaged.

Now, you have to consult them and discover ways you can aid their existing business model. So you'll have to create an appointment. Include things such as "Don't take this the wrong way, but your website has no Google Analytics tracking tags on it via the Tag Assistant browser extension. Not tracking your website activity can lead you to miss out on key insights about your consumer behavior. I can show you some simple tips to help fix this. Would you be interested in this opportunity?"

When you send emails that way, people will want to know how your business can increase their company’s value. So if you don’t receive an email response, then you can hint at your services, but don’t give them too much value.

Suggest some areas of your expertise and something that will improve their business. Then, create a 5-minute Zoom appointment where you can convince, convert, and thank your new clients for deciding to work for you.

These opportunities only present themselves if you’re brave enough to outreach first. Make sure that the opportunities are relevant to your business to ensure that both sides can benefit.

At every stage, we show how we can give value to your prospect's business. Email personalization is key to focusing on your recipient instead of bragging about your company and services.

Conclusion

Using the cold outreach method to convert leads is a great way to increase your conversion percentages. Make sure that you carefully create the prospecting list and spend time on the required efforts.

Remember your cold outreach email campaign doesn't have to be spam-like and impersonal. Your efforts into the prospecting prospect will generate high-quality leads and increase your company's visibility. If you follow these steps, you'll experience better leads that will aid your entire sales pipeline!

Generating Leads: An Important Aspect of Your Business

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